Letters

Some of the crowd are on the pitch …

Although a weekend in Cologne around the Ghana v Czech Republic qualifier in 2006 convinced me that all World Cups should be held in Germany, I was nevertheless disappointed but not surprised by England's two-vote fiasco (Cheer up Becks, at least England didn't go out on penalties, 3 December). This is nothing to do with Panorama, a Prince or a PM. Instead, you just get the clear impression that Fifa executives had made their minds up ages ago – and with good reason. After all, what objective reason did these various FAs from around the world ever have to vote for the England bid? Arguments about legacy, the passion of English fans etc can only be irrelevant to an audience that for good reason has no interest in doing anything that could further support the rapacious commercial imperialism of our Premier League (formerly known as the best league in the world). A vote for the England bid? But why? To facilitate the sale of more English club shirts to the detriment of their own competitions and club integrity? To further pave the way for the 39th game? Crikey, you wonder where the second vote came from!

Simon Crabtree

Cheam, Surrey

• Let's look on the bright side. No eight-year media drone ramming the Team England narrative down our throats; no eight-year St George flag visual pollution fluttering from our cars; no eight-year re-recordings from Baddiel and Skinner about football coming home; no eight-year (or five at least) smug rants from Messrs Cameron and Johnson reminding us how they were brought up on the beautiful game (Eton wall game, that is); no eight-year mass advertising hype to be metaphorically and literally screwed up and chucked into landfill come 2018; and eight years without the jingoistic guff spluttering from Sky users and Sun readers. What's not to like?

Richard Tippett

Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire

• The sense of hurt entitlement displayed by the great and good after our bid to stage the 2018 World Cup failed smells of sour grapes. Yes, we have the stadiums and the infrastructure, but boy do we sound like bad losers. The goodies should be shared around – we are staging the Olympics in less than two years. Look at it this way? Not staging the games will free up the funds to establish a solid network of training programmes, to help prepare the young footballers of today to win the cup in Russia in eight years; or at least guarantee us a better result than the dismal England team in South Africa earlier this year. That would be compensation indeed.

Robin Ellis

St Martin de Dauzats, France

• Johnny Foreigner has gone and done it again – given the World Cup to a country that's never had it before! What are they like? Don't they know we put in the best bid? England was even represented by Prince William of Wales and the prime minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, plus one of the finest footballers ever to play for an American team. What more could we have done? In fact, there's a sound case for the World Cup to be held in England every time. When will they learn?

Simon Platman

London

• The England World Cup bid was always doomed; sending over two toffs and a twerp at the 11th hour only made it worse. We would have been much better off on a United Kingdom ticket. This would have disarmed Fifa's view of us as a parochial hooligan colony and, by involving matches played in Glasgow, Cardiff and Belfast (rather than Milton Keynes, Plymouth and Bognor Regis), would have given us some serious clout in Zurich – where the "Three Lions" ended up resembling the Three Stooges,

Max Bell

Thame, Oxfordshire

• The decision by Fifa is puzzling. After millions of pounds spent on lavish tours and professional presentations, Fifa's own conclusions were that, with reference to key criteria, England's bid was one of the best. Yet the bid received only two votes? Russia and Qatar have no infrastructure for the competition and show little evidence to support the Kick Racism Out campaign. Which other organisation receives its own findings with such contempt? If the reports carry no weight, don't bother with them.

Ken Walton

Preston

• I am outraged that the £15m spent assembling and promoting England's unsuccessful bid to Fifa to host the World Cup has gone to waste. That is equivalent to £682,000 for each voting Fifa executive member. That money could have been much better spent.

Dr Paul Thornton

Kenilworth, Warwickshire

• Why wasn't all my (and everyone else's) tax money bundled up, put in large suitcases and delivered direct to the Fifa committee's hotel rooms? I feel this would have been a better use of my money than flying the PM back and forth – plus Wills and Becks – to Zurich. They might as well have stayed at home.